The Common Law

Every time I look up this time of year it seems like the U.S. Supreme Court is in the news for issuing an important opinion. Why the big rush of cases all at once? And what are some of the recent opinions that might actually impact me?

Every year in late June the U.S. Supreme Court ends up in the news, oftentimes deciding disputes on important nationally debated topics. There's a simple reason for this – the court's annual term ends in late June, so the court is hustling to issue its opinions before the term ends.

Donald Trump's three Supreme Court nominees – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, & Amy Coney Barrett – have created a solid six-justice conservative majority. That conservative majority exerted its power this term, including in three of the court's recent controversial opinions.

Biden's Student Debt Relief Shot Down. The court rejected President Biden's plan to forgive student loans. The ruling puts nearly 40 million Americans with student debt back on the hook to repay the full debt. The fundamental issue was whether the executive branch (the president and his education secretary) can forgive student loan debt under the HEROES Act without congressional approval. The court's conservative majority held that the nullification of all student loan debt without congressional approval exceeded the president's authority.

University Admissions Affirmative Action Policies Limited. Colleges and universities are no longer able to take race into consideration as a specific factor in admissions. Justice John Roberts, writing the majority opinion, did not entirely exclude race from the admissions process. According to Roberts, the "student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual – not on the basis of race."

Free Speech Trumps LGBTQ Rights. The court ruled in favor of a website designer that argued her religious beliefs allowed her to decline work for same-sex couples that sought wedding announcements. The court essentially held that while we may encounter ideas we consider wrong or offensive, "the First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands." Three justices (Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson) dissented from the majority opinion, holding that the majority ruling cast LGBTQ Americans as second-class citizens and eroded recent efforts to establish equity for gender and sexual minorities.

Each of these three cases involved sharp critiques between the conservative and liberal wings of the court. Check out scotusblog.com if you want to see a complete review of the entire year's opinions.